PubMed ID: 41628761
Author(s): Josef JD, Bradfield YS, Greninger DA, Chang TC; Diversity, Equity Inclusion Task Force members; Annual Program Committee members of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Minority representation in the 2024 American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) annual meeting program. J AAPOS. 2026 Feb;30(1):104742. doi: 10.1016/j.jaapos.2026.104742. Epub 2026 Feb 12. PMID: 41628761.PMID 41628761
Journal: Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus 30(1):104742
Purpose: To determine the level of minority representation at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS).
Methods: The abstract submissions process for the 2024 AAPOS annual meeting allowed self-reporting of authors’ status as underrepresented in medicine (URiM). The choice “decline to answer” (DTA) was available for all questions. The different groups’ submission outcomes (paper, poster, and workshop) were compared. URiM was defined as having one or more of the following identities: Black or African American; Hispanic or Latino; American Indian or Alaska Native; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
Results: In research abstracts, 17% of all authors and 13.7% of presenting authors identified as URiM (16% and 17% chose DTA, resp.). There were no significant differences in the proportion of abstracts accepted as a paper or poster presentation between URiM and non-URiM authors (P > 0.7 for all comparisons). Female presenting authors were more likely to have an accepted abstract than males (81.6% vs 66.4% [P = 0.0015]). Subgroup analysis showed no differences between URiM and non-URiM in paper presentations. In workshop abstracts, 39.6% of panelists and 10.4% of organizers identified as URiM, respectively. There were no significant differences in workshop abstract acceptance rates between URiM and non-URiM presenting authors (P > 0.1 for all comparisons).
Conclusions: The current AAPOS approach toward meeting representation, which includes masked evaluation of abstracts for presentation, appears to be equitable toward URiM presenters.